Postage Stamps and Postal History of German East Africa - German Postal Agency

German Postal Agency

A German postal agency was established on 27 February 1885 in Lamu using German stamps for mail. Following the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty in 1890 Germany created the colony of German East Africa. Initially only German stamps were used. The first postage stamps issued for German East Africa came in 1893, as surcharges in pesa values on regular German stamps, along with the inscription "Deutsch-Ostafrika." In 1900, Germany issued the "Yachts," a common design used for all of Germany's colonies, featuring the Kaiser's yacht Hohenzollern. In German East Africa they were denominated in pesas and rupees (64 pesas to a rupee), and inscribed "DEUTSCH-OSTAFRIKA". In 1905 new stamps were printed in "hellers," 100 hellers to a rupee. Germany continued to print stamps even as things went badly in the war, issuing a 1-rupee watermarked Yacht in 1916 (genuine uses of this stamp are extremely rare, worth US$20,000 or more).

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